


Talitha Kum

by Caiti (Caitriona_3)



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Holly Poly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 21:22:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28660152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caitriona_3/pseuds/Caiti
Summary: It was supposed to be a simple date night.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov
Comments: 16
Kudos: 27
Collections: Holly Poly 2020





	Talitha Kum

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alistra (ALeaseInWonderland)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ALeaseInWonderland/gifts).



> This was meant to be a bit longer and more involved, but my entire household came down with COVID and it's thrown everything off schedule. Instead its a bit more of a snapshot, but I hope you enjoy. The notes at the end include some more details on the background if anyone is interested.

Quiet conversation, twinkling Christmas lights, rich wine, and red meat . . . it didn’t exactly spell a perfect night for Clint Barton. He preferred pizza, coffee, home-cooking, and the home fires, but when it came to his favorite two people? Well, he could and did reset his preferences. Natasha Romanoff and James Barnes would make pretty much any night perfect. When Tasha wanted to get dressed up fancy for a night on the town, her men made it work.

And he would have to admit it had been an enjoyable dinner, conversation covering any topic but work.

Then Natasha’s phone rang.

“Aw, hell.” Clint sighed and slumped back as she moved away to answer it. “Sometimes I think fate hates us. Our dates never go well.”

James raised his eyebrows. “And here I thought you enjoyed the ice cream.”

“Point.” He had enjoyed that date – the two men making an effort to try every single flavor offered in the Tipsy Scoop. “Okay, let me restate. When I go on a date with you, its great. You go on a date with Tasha? Also good. Tasha’s going on a date with me usually goes off without a hitch. But the **three** of us?” Clint used his finger to make a circle in the air, pointing at each of them in turn. “We try to go out as a trio, and something is bound to happen.”

“Pessimist.”

“Realist.”

“The streakers were interesting.”

At that, Clint had to laugh. “Okay, so watching the cops chase a bunch of drunk college students did make for a fun night, even if they screwed with our planned picnic.” He shook his head. “Wouldn’t have been so bad if the reporters hadn’t shown up.”

“Vultures have to eat too.”

“There’s a picture.”

“I hate reporters,” James chuckled. “Nosy and opinionated.”

“Sounds like Stark.”

“He’s got better manners.”

“Well . . . **that’s** frightening.”

When Natasha returned to the table, her green eyes held a hint of a leashed huntress. “Either of you busy this weekend?”

Clint exchanged a quick look with James before rolling his shoulders in a studied carelessness. “Not particularly,” he agreed. Slouching back in his seat, he watched her expression for any clues. “Find something for us to do?”

“The call I just took came from a . . . colleague of mine.”

“Okay, now I may have to protest,” he chuckled. “Last time one of your ‘colleagues’ called, we all ended up in medical.”

Her lips twitched, but she shook her head. “This isn’t one of our shadowy networks.”

“Do we know any other type?” James asked. 

She didn’t answer immediately, reaching for her wine to take a sip and possibly to give herself a moment to consider her answer. Clint watched her expression. Secrets might be Natasha’s modus operandi, but she usually had a quick reply ready to any question. Letting them see her thought process meant this particular colleague might fall into one of her rare friendships. If that proved true . . . he began to arrange supplies in his mind. Natasha didn’t have many friendships and she had a habit of trying to get herself killed in order to help them.

“Her name is Krystyna Jedynak,” Natasha began. “I met her during a mission to Lodz several years ago.”

“And she’s not a spy?” Clint prompted.

“She’s a religious sister.”

“Not necessarily a contradiction or diametrically opposed,” James pointed out.

“True,” she allowed, humor glinting in her eyes, “and those she works against might consider her just that.” Taking another sip of her wine, Natasha gestured for the waitress. “I want some dessert while I give you the basics.”

Clint went for the key lime pie, figuring he could get bites from her crème brûlée and James’ ice cream sundae. They kept the conversation light and off topic until their desserts sat on the table. With the waitress sent off with a discreet wish for quiet, he returned to the previous conversation. “Who is Jedynak working against?” 

“Let me start with her organization.” Spooning up a small bite, she licked the custard off. When Clint shifted in his seat, she flicked him an amused look. “Focus, please.”

“Oh, trust me, I’m focused.”

“Hmm.” Finishing her bite, she leaned back. “Sister Krystyna works with an organization named Talitha Kum.”

James tapped his own spoon against his bowl. “That sounds familiar, but I can’t quite place it.”

“Probably from your old life,” she explained. “It’s Aramaic and you probably heard it used in church.”

“Aramaic?”

“Translated, it means ‘little girl, I say to you, arise’.” Natasha’s smile gentled, an expression many of their SHIELD compatriots wouldn’t recognize. “Sister Krystyna says it defines their organization. It’s an international group of religious who involve as many volunteers as possible to stop human trafficking.”

Clint’s eyebrows rose. “Ambitious.”

“Indeed.” Reaching out with her spoon, she stole a bite of his pie. “But they’ve had some success and each person they help gives them reason to continue.”

“And this Sister Krystyna recruited you?” James probed.

“A contact recommended me,” she corrected. “I was suggested to them as someone who might be able to help move people and supplies under the noses of the black market.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure how one of my fellow graduates managed to end up as a Polish nun, but Zoya Chekhova gave them my name.” Her shoulders rose and fell in a gentle shrug. “I owed Chekhova, so I gave them a hearing.”

“Which turned into you becoming one of their workers?” When she cocked an eyebrow at him, Clint just grinned. “Come on, Tash, you’re not hauling us off this weekend for something you’ve written off as a one-off.”

“Perhaps.” The shadow of a pout flit over her mouth for a moment before smoothing away. “Something about them . . . I just couldn’t tell them no.”

“It doesn’t hurt that they stand against everything the Red Room represented.” At James’ quiet words, both of his partners turned to face him. “That no group, organization, or country had the right to press people into work against their will.”

“That played a part, yes.”

“What do you need?” Clint asked. He should have considered the Red Room and how it would have played into Natasha’s decision. A group that tried to keep little girls from being turned into commodities? Yeah, he could get behind that.

“They need someone to cover a transfer of kids,” Natasha explained. “They’ve rescued half a dozen and there’s a safe place for them, but they want to make sure no one can track them.”

“Sounds like a job we can do.”

“And if someone tries to follow?” James asked.

“Well, they’d prefer we not kill them,” she smiled. “It doesn’t fit Talitha Kum’s ideology.”

“What about losing them in a pit?”

Her smile shifted into a smirk. “Things are probably get a little fuzzier there.”

Clint stretched and smiled at them. “Sounds like a fun date to me.”

**Author's Note:**

> [Talitha Kum](https://www.talithakum.info/en) is a legitimate organization and when I noticed the due date of January 11th, this jumped out at me. In addition, if you go to their website, you'll see an Ethiopian proverb that spoke to me of Natasha - “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion”
> 
> January - National Anti-Human Trafficking Awareness Month  
> January 11th - National Human Trafficking Awareness Day
> 
> National Human Trafficking Hotline – https://humantraffickinghotline.org/states  
> Blue Campaign – https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign  
> Office for Victims of Crime – Human Trafficking – https://ovc.ojp.gov/program/human-trafficking/overview


End file.
